2010 Winter Olympics: A Vancouver People Movement Laboratory

An official corporate sponsor is ready. Feb. 2010

While cycling about the city and particularly around  the main Games venues, each day we see signs of readiness for the Olympics. The official corporate sponsors are certainly prepared and hoping for a windfall of more customers and revenues.

Olympic torch relay. 37th St. & Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver BC. Feb. 11, 2010. Photo by J.Chong

Outcomes of transportation planning for the Olympics will be critiqued on all fronts.  For the next few weeks, we will see the fruits from a few years of transportation planning, forecasting and modeling mass movement of people while also ensuring their safety. The planning has been executed and hopefully, coordinated at all levels – municipal, provincial, national and international.

 On the roads, each lane or road closure provides an opportunity for testing where the traffic goes and how much disappears.  Transit ridership and cycling traffic are being measured.  Some neighbourhoods are becoming much quieter with less pollution being emitted from vehicles.  Hopefully, the experience will be well documented with research papers.

From this laboratory will come new knowledge and new opportunities for realigning streets to accommodate all road users from pedestrians, to cyclists, to transit users, to car drivers.  More appealing and  comfortable people streets could be gained from this knowledge.

A massive choreography where there is no single shared music score except

Olympic torch relay by canoe. North False Creek to Yaletown Ferry Dock, Vancouver, BC. Feb. 12, 2010. Photo by J. Chong

 people wanting to travel for their own reasons, on their own terms, and on

Olympic torch flame canoe reaching Yaletown dock. Vancouver, BC. Feb. 12, 2010. Photo by J. Becker

 their own schedule between several different destinations.  The choreographer has to effectively mix people movement by air, water and land.

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